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Indiana Jones vs. Predator (1995 film)
Indiana Jones vs. Predator is a 1995 American action-adventure-science fiction film. Directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas and starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Tyler Mane (due to the death of Kevin Peter Hall) as the Predator. It was released by Paramount Pictures on May 24, 1995 and is the fifth in the seven picture film series produced by Lucasfilm. It is generally considered one of the best in the series, even though the inclusion of the Predator (on loan from Twentieth Century Fox) and everyone involved generally phoning it in (you can practically hear the dial tone) seems like an insincere attempt at taking our money. I mean really Spielberg and Lucas could take a crap, film it and it will still make more money than I'll ever see in a lifetime. It's just so unfair. Ah, well, whattya goin' do? It's a pretty bitchin' film to tell the truth. I've seen it eight times already. Plot In 1941, Indiana Jones is being chased by the Nazis in Belgium, while searching for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. They pursue him on the Orient Express, but after several close scrapes, he defeats the Nazi agents and makes good his escape. Back in the United States, at Marshall College, Indy is teaching a class on Quantum Mechanics as all the female students (and one lone male) watch him with a sense of awe. His class is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Marcus Brody who explains that an urgent letter has just arrived, it is addressed to Indiana Jones. Indy opens the letter to find a real cryptic message and its signed "Willie Scott." Indy is unsure of how to decipher it, so he takes Brody's suggestion and brings it to Short Round, who is now 16 years old and going to MIT as he's Asian and very smart*. (*-Not a racist comment, it was scientifically proven) Meanwhile Indiana Jones is being stalked by someone who uses thermal vision and constantly mimics all vocalizations that Indy uses. Indy arrives at MIT, but the reunion between the two is not good. Short Round feels that Indy has abandoned him as a father figure and Indy agrees with him. However Short Round feels that Willie Scott should not suffer for their issues and agrees to help decipher the code. It is soon revealed to be a simple message written backwards and after looking into a mirror, they can read it; Help me! Indy! Strange powerful invisible alien is trying to kill me! Unsure if Willie has gone insane or simply screwing with him, Indy decides to ignore the message. Then an attack from an unseen adversary (which leaves Short Round with a huge cauterized hole in his chest) convinces Indy that maybe something is amiss. Indy learns from the Yellow Pages that Willie is now living in Europe and so he charters a plane to get there. While on board the flight, the unseen creature attacks the plane and kills everyone onboard, except for Indy, who parachutes out at the last minute. Before Indy lands on the ground, he spots the creature and recognizes it. Indy hits the ground hard, but remains unhurt. He finds himself outside Willie's nightclub and enters to find her. Willie Scott is singing in the club and Indy gets into a brawl with several patrons as he tries to get her attention. By the end of the fight the entire club has been knocked out by the two-fisted archaeologist. This leaves Willie fuming, but she's still happy that Indy has come to rescue her. As they have another romp in the sack for old times sake, Willie explains that a strange alien has been following her. At first she suspected it was Nazis, but she realized that she was wrong. Indy explains that he saw the alien and remembers seeing it before. Indy leads Willie next to Singapore where they visit the Library of Ding Dong which has the greatest post-Columbian art figures in the world. After dealing with the broken doorbell, they get inside and the curator Mao Zedong shows them to a bas-relief to Indy's relief. It shows clearly that an alien creature visited the Aztecs in the 14th century and hunted them for sport. The inscription reveals the alien was known only as a Predator. Speaking of which, the alien attacks for a third time and accidentally kills Mao Zedong in the process. While Indy and Willie escape, Mao's brother Zao blames the American capitalists for his brother's death and assumes his name and vows to bring communism to China. Indy and Willie make their way to the jungles of Mexico in hopes that the Aztec Citadel, the most revered site of the Aztecs, will share a clue as how to defeat the Predator. As they arrive, Indy is stopped by a BHG and Indy ends up fighting him. The fights ends abruptly when Indy pushes the guy into a giant flame pit and burns him alive. Indy then searches a room and finds an ancient tablet that reveals the Predator hunts by body heat and so he covers himself with mud to disguise his body heat signature. Willie stands there and watches as Indy engages the Predator in a massive one-on-one fight that is epic in every sense of the word. In the end Indy proves victorious and kills the Predator by dropping him in the same flame pit. As he recovers, the true mastermind behind this plot is revealed. An Evil Dwarf shows himself and reveals that he had sent the SETI message to the Predator vowing one hell of a fight. Indy asks why and the Evil Dwarf answers his question. It seems that the Evil Dwarf is the President of Marshall College and put an employee insurance policy on Indy and was hoping to collect. Hurt by this, Indy quits his job and nullifies the insurance claim. Then he pushes the Evil Dwarf in the same flame pit, because the little dude really is no challenge to the awesome hero. By cell phone Brody calls Indy and tells him he's just been hired as the new President of Marshall College and begs Indy to come back to work. Indy agrees, but not before kissing Willie who promises him the sex that Indy now so richly deserves. Cast *Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones *Tyler Mane as Predator *Kate Capshaw as Willie Scott *Ke Huy Quan as Short Round *Denholm Elliott as Marcus Brody *Jackie Chan as Mao Zedong *Pat Roach as A big huge guy that Indy fights *Warwick Davis as The Evil Dwarf Production Development While sitting in his house one evening, Lucas noticed that playing on HBO was the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Predator and stayed up past midnight to watch it. Impressed with the film, and possibly owing to some sleep deprivation, Lucas believed that he found an adversary worthy to combat his creation Indiana Jones. He called Spielberg that night and made the suggestion at which time Spielberg told Lucas to stop smoking weed and go to bed. Nonetheless Lucas was determined to see his ideas visualized on the silver screen. Lucas went to Twentieth Century Fox and requested the use the Predator license for his next film. Twentieth Century Fox agreed for 34% of the box office. With the license in his control, Lucas again contacted Spielberg who realized that Lucas was serious and resolved himself to the project. Writing Unlike most screenplays in the Indiana Jones series this one practically wrote itself. Lucas had seen Predator while working late one night and, well, you know the rest. Lucas, due to being a really bad writer himself, hired Willard Hyuck and Gloria Katz to pen this chapter in the series with only a few stipulations; 1. The Predator had to be the main villain. 2. Very few Nazis 3. A twist ending. The script was finished in two weeks and they filmed the movie after it was written. Casting Aside from the returning cast members from past films, Tyler Mane was picked to assume the role of the Predator due to the 1991 death of Kevin Peter Hall. Mane agreed for the chance to work with Spielberg and a suitcase filled with cash. Warwick Davis of Leprechaun fame was cast as the Evil Dwarf and Jackie Chan was cast as Mao Zedong, as well as the fictional twin brother Zao. Filming The filmmakers were denied permission to film in North Korea due to the government finding the script racist and offensive. The government demanded many script changes, rewritings and final cut privilege. As a result, location work went to Mexico, where Budgetary inflation also caused the film to cost $48.1 million, $8 million more than the previous Indiana Jones film. Filming began on March 18, 1994 in Mexico, and moved to Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England on June 5. Producer Frank Marshall recalled, "when filming the dog scenes, crew members would go home and find bugs in their hair, clothes and shoes. Why? Well those dogs had bugs!" Eight out of the nine sound stages at Elstree housed the filming of Indy vs. Predator. Lucas observed, "Dean Cundey's skillful lighting helped disguise the fact that about 98.6 percent of the film was shot with sound stages. Danny Daniels was brought back to choreograph the new music number "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Elliot Scott (Labyrinth, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), was again hired as production designer. To build the Aztec Citadel the filmmakers hired a group of Mexican engineers and over 40 tons of plaster was used to built it. It collapsed two weeks after filming stopped, but nobody cared. Macau was substituted for Singapore, while cinematographer Dean Cundey caught a fever from June 24 to July 7 and could not work. Ford, abducted by kidnappers looking for ransom, returned on August 8. Despite the problems during filming, Spielberg was able to complete Indy vs. Predator on schedule and on budget, finishing principal photography on August 26. Themes The obvious theme for this outing is the concept of survival of the fittest with the Predator and Indiana Jones at odds with one another merely to see who will overcome the other in battle. Indiana Jones as the man, with the Predator as the unstoppable force, it can be assumed that a man vs. nature theme was also running rampant throughout the story. The inclusion of Mao Zedong and his fictional brother assuming the mantle for communism in China alluded to the belief that America and American capitalism was responsible for the real Mao's death, and that all those who followed China into communism are a bunch of idiots. Distribution Home media The film was first introduced to the home video market by Paramount Home Video in early 1996 and was eventually released on Laserdisc. It has since been released on DVD, first in 1998 in the United States as part of the Indiana Jones Collection box set (along with the other six sequels), and once again in Restored "Infinifilm" Special Edition in 2006, containing various special features with contributions including a feature length commentary from Harrison Ford's stunt double, Steven Spielberg's hairdresser, Kevin Peter Hall's medical examiner, some guy in off the street and George Lucas. The Special Edition consisted of 13 DVDs, one with the film picture and sound restored (DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 & original mono audio track) and another 12 DVDs with overblown, long winded, time-wasting and generally extreme padding special features. Along with the restored version of the film, DVD 1 also had 4 commentaries. It also included additional, extended or alternate scenes of the film, such as one scene where Indiana Jones beats the living shit out of Willie Scott (because who didn't want to beat her senseless) for whining and crying yet again. These unused clips/scenes were not included/added in the film but could be viewed separately from the DVD's Menus. On April 13, 2010, the film was released on Blu-ray Disc by Paramount Home Video with all the same extras from the 2006 Special Edition included on the Blu-ray release. Reaction Box office Indiana Jones vs. Predator premiered in the United States with a very limited theatrical release on November 19, 1990, opening in only 65 cinemas across the country. It still managed to gross $121,271,000 during its opening weekend, the film was considered an instant commercial success. The film eventually earned a total of $925,504,513 at the American box office. Critical reception Since its initial release, the film has received universal critical acclaim. The film has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984. Even though it did come out in 1995.